The Friend Zone
by Bunny Sakuno
Summary: Summary: Nothing is interesting if you're not interested, and Ryoma has always found Sakuno to be interesting. Recently, she has him thinking about her to the point of distraction, which leads to a series of failed attempts to get her attention back to where it's always belonged. On him.
1. Chapter 1

**The Friend Zone**

By Bunny

Rated: T

Summary: Nothing is interesting if you're not interested, and Ryoma has always found Sakuno to be interesting. Recently, she has him thinking about her to the point of distraction, which leads to a series of failed attempts to get her attention back to where it's always belonged. On him.

* * *

_IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON THIS FIC:_

This is the story I wrote for the **2013 Summer RyoSaku Express Fandom Exchange** hosted by **neko11lover**. Below is my request prompt:

_For **OrangeAce**_

Canon Knowledge: Anime only

What you want to receive: Fic

Prompt: Nothing is interesting if you're not interested

What you want to see: Coming-of-age, Ryoma sees Sakuno in a new light, mixture of humor and drama, family, Nanjiroh's appearance, failed attempts

What you don't want to see: OOCness. That is all.

* * *

Chapter One

* * *

Echizen Ryoma couldn't believe it.

How had this possibly happened? When had things changed? How had he missed the signs? Had there not been any? Had it happened overnight? Hadn't he been obvious enough?

Was it possible she was really that stupid? Or had she simply changed her mind?

The idea of it was really so fresh, so new, so shocking, he was still wrapping his mind around it but...there was no mistaking it. The way Ryuzaki Sakuno had started talking to him left no doubt...

He was in _THE FRIEND ZONE._

How in the world did he end up in her friend zone? It was truly a mystery. See...Ryuzaki and him...they had always, always, _always_ been anything but friends. The day they met they'd been anything but friends. She'd always liked him, and the feeling had been completely mutual.

Of course, when they'd first met, they'd only been twelve. So naturally, not much had really come of it, and over the past few years things hadn't really changed.

Ryoma thought that they had both been perfectly content with the way things were. That is, there were obvious signs of their mutual attraction, but neither of them had pursued more than some simple flirting, walks home, and the regular exchanging of gifts for important things like birthdays and holidays.

It had been great. It had been comfortable. It had given him stability. She was something he could rely on in his life. They were as together as they could be without actually saying anything about being together or doing anything really romantic. It allowed him to keep his focus where it should be...on tennis.

He was a simple guy. He _liked _his life simple. There was tennis and there was _everything else that he had to do_ that wasn't tennis. Included in that everything else was girls. One day he would want a girl of his own. He was lucky enough to meet that girl when he was twelve, and they had _an understanding._

An understanding that when the time came...you know...when they grew up...they would be together. It was a given that they would be together. It made sense. It was nice and simple. It was just the way he liked everything in his life that wasn't tennis. When he decided he wanted to step things up, Ryuzaki was waiting for him. It would be nice and easy.

_Or so he'd thought._

Then this morning, everything had fallen apart. He was still pissed off about it. _How could she do this to him? _What had he ever done to deserve this...this..._great insult_ from her? Who gave her permission to put him in the friend zone?_ THE FRIEND ZONE!_

His day had started out a little worse than any other day started out. He woke up groggy. He was really not a morning person, but this was worse than usual. Had he not slept well? Did he eat something funny before bed? He couldn't remember, everything was so foggy.

After slugging his way through his morning routine, he'd plopped into his chair at the breakfast table, "Western breakfast again?"

"I swear Ryoma, we should just stop feeding you," His mother snapped back.

Ryoma frowned. _What the hell was her problem?_ He rarely complained about his food these days. Nothing like he had when he'd been younger. Usually his mom just brushed his comments about it off. So why was she being so snappy about it today? Wasn't he allowed to voice his opinion every once in awhile? They knew his food preferences, but somehow they still had western food more often than not. So of course he still felt the need to reinforce his unchanged opinion every once in awhile. Especially when he was having a bad morning.

Apparently, he just wasn't the only one grouchy this morning. _How annoying._

A minute later a steaming plate of food was placed in front of him, and Ryoma dug into his eggs and bacon without any further ado. It was just not worth complaining about it any more. So troublesome.

"So how's your little girlfriend doing? We haven't seen her in a while," his father opened with as he took a sip of his coffee. He had his usual monk outfit on and was glossing over a newspaper. Ryoma would bet his left arm his father was just using the newspaper to hide whatever pervy pictures his old man was _really _looking at.

Ryoma barely glanced in the direction of his father as he irritably muttered his usual reply to such an inquiry, "I don't have a girlfriend."

"What's this all about? Did you guys break up? Do I need to call the Old Hag and apologize for having such a worthless son?"

Ryoma barely restrained himself from growling with annoyance. Why did his old man always have to bring up crap like this when he was obviously having a bad morning? It was such a pain. Not to mention he still had no idea where his old man had gotten the idea in his head that Ryuzaki was his girlfriend in the first place. If he wasn't so over it after years of her being referred to as such, he would be annoyed about that too. In fact...he was feeling a bit annoyed about it anyway...because whatever _was _or _was not _going on between Ryuzaki and himself was _certainly not _any of his dirty old man's business.

He looked up from his eggs and bacon and gave his old man a knowing smirk, "I doubt Coach will be happy to hear you want to leer at her granddaughter. OUCH!"

"OWW!" Nanjiro echoed.

"Don't talk like that at the breakfast table," Rinko scolded her two boys after slapping them both on the backs of their heads.

"Rinko, we're _just having some fun," _Nanjiro whined as he scratched the back of his head where he'd just been smacked.

"Oh...like that magazine you're hiding behind that newspaper kind-of fun?"

Ryoma's eyes widened. _It was time to get the hell out of here. _Where this conversation was headed...he didn't want any part of it. They were going to either fight and then go have some alone time...or go have some alone time...or he didn't really want to know more about their habits than he did already. His parents had a strange way of flirting, or foreplay, or ewwww...whatever it was called, he didn't want to hear or be around for any more of it.

He took a large gulp of his orange juice, trying to get as much of it down as possible in one gulp, grabbed a piece of toast and rose up from his chair.

"Leaving already, Seishounen?" His dad asked.

He gave a slight nod as he made his way out of the kitchen and into the entryway. As he quickly slid his shoes on and grabbed his tennis bag, his father called through the house, "Bring Sakuno-chan over sometime. I bet she's all filled out and pretty now. You should show your girlfriend off to your parents."

Ryoma's eyes narrowed at the door as he called back, "Yada."

Leaving the house, he slammed the front door behind him and put his piece of toast back into his mouth. It crunched satisfactorily as his teeth bit into it.

Damn...sometimes he really missed Nanako. His old man hadn't been nearly as outrageous when she'd still been living with them.

He leisurely strolled towards Seigaku High School as he munched on his toast, still trying to wake up and get a bearing on why he was so damn tired this morning. Ryuzaki...all filled out and pretty. _The hell..._

She had always been pretty.

He didn't think about it much because it made him feel pressure to do things...things he wasn't sure he was ready to do just yet, but it was true...Ryuzaki _had _filled out. He kind of felt like he would have to have been blind not to notice, but seeing as how she was his girl, that's probably why he noticed it. After all, you had to be interested in someone to notice things like that...right? He hadn't paid attention to any of the other girls that had probably also recently..._filled out. _

Ryuzaki on the other hand...he noticed it all right. Her body..._changing. _She had all sorts of curves now that she didn't have when they were younger. They'd really started showing up last year when they were in their final year of middle school, but this year she was looking _all woman._

It made him..._uncomfortable._

Lately, it had gotten so bad that he could barely even look at her. His mind would just travel to this other place. This place where she was beneath him making little sounds in her throat as he roamed his hands under her clothes and sucked on her neck. Or even worse was when he imagined her legs wrapped around him as he...

STOP! Can't think about it!

He paused there on the sidewalk and shook his head back and forth as if trying to shake his thoughts free. _Calm down...calm down..._

"Ryoma-kun!" A startled female voice cried out behind him.

He froze.

_Oh...no..._

He heard the quick slaps of her mary janes hitting the pavement as she ran up to him. A hand landed on his shoulder, and a second later her big cinnamon eyes appeared in his line of vision, "Are you okay? Is your head bothering you?"

Oh man...Ryuzaki did not just catch him fantasizing about doing naughty things with her curvy little body.

Not waiting for an answer from him, her other hand had already began rubbing over his head. He wasn't sure what she was doing, but her hand felt amazing in his hair. Oh man...she was _touching _him. This uncomfortable thing was about to get even worse.

He felt like he couldn't even _walk _now.

She moved closer as her hand roamed towards the back of his head. She pushed up on her tiptoes and her breasts pushed into his chest so she could reach all the way. She let out a soft, "Hmm," while her hand continued to run over his scalp through his black locks.

Hot damn. _She was going to kill him. _Her body felt even better than he imagined it would when it was pressed up against his. He was going to grab her and do all kinds of things to her and...oh no. He really needed to move back..._NOW, _but...she smelled so good that he kind of just wanted to eat her up...and see what...

His hand twitched as he finally managed to take a big step back. It came out more irritable than intended, "Ryuzaki...I'm fine."

She frowned up at him and it was all he could do to keep himself from closing the new distance between them and pressing his lips against hers. He needed to get away from her..._it wasn't time yet for that stuff. _He still had _tennis_...and _tennis_...and he couldn't get all wrapped up in his sudden interest in Ryuzaki and her curves right now.

"Ryoma-kun, you were standing on the sidewalk shaking your head. There must be something wrong," She insisted.

Well, hell. What do you say to something like that? 'I was imagining tearing your clothes off and licking your hot little body, so...you know...'

Yeah...he would never say something like that. It was bad enough he thought about those things...saying them would just make him as big of a perv as his old man. Well, maybe not as big of a perv as his old man. Any male would be hard pressed to be _as big of a perv _as his old man.

"Ryoma-kun is spacing out. It's not like you. I couldn't feel anything, but did you hit your head or something?"

He shook his head again, trying to get rid of the new thought he'd come up with of licking her all over...this was so out of control. Couldn't she just GO AWAY and leave him in peace to collect himself? Girls! They were so damn clueless!

She stepped towards him again, her hand reaching towards his head one more time and something inside of him just...snapped.

You know what? Maybe _it was_ time. Time to start this thing for real. Time for them to stop with the childish relationship and move into something more..._adult._ She was driving him so crazy lately he couldn't even be in her company, which was a huge problem. He liked her company. He also had tennis practice with her every Sunday, and the past few weeks he'd been neglecting really teaching her because he'd been too busy caught up in some fantasy to pay attention to her tennis. They were almost sixteen, lots of their friends were dating, or had dated already. Maybe if he could just get this fire put out with her, he could get back to focusing completely on _tennis._

He stepped back towards her and she smiled up at him sweetly, like she always did.

Wow...this was really happening. This was finally really going to happen. He was going to do it. Placing his hands lightly against her hips, he tilted his head down slightly, "Ne...Ryuzaki...don't you think it's time?"

He watched as her eyes quickly widened with realization. Good. She knew what he meant. Just like he'd always thought. This was going to be too easy...

He tilted his head down closer to hers, while she looked down.

_Wait...why is she looking down when he was up?_

He had barely registered that she was looking at her watch and then her head snapped up and caught his chin.

"UGH," He grunted from the impact as his teeth smashed down on his tongue.

_What the hell just happened? This was NOT supposed to happen!_

"Oh my! Ryoma-kun!" She was fluttering around him now as he bent over, spitting blood out of his mouth onto the sidewalk. _He couldn't remember feeling so embarrassed in all his life._

"I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were so close, I just- you said it was time and I realized we must be late for school and then-"

He tuned her out as she kept on blabbering. He felt like he'd just bit off the end of his tongue. His whole mouth throbbed with pain. Before he could even think straight she was grabbing onto his wrist as she started pulling him towards school.

"Let's get to the nurse's office, Ryoma-kun! I can't believe I hurt you so badly, I'm so embarrassed. I hope it doesn't mess up your tennis."

His eyes narrowed at her slight form that was now barely in front of him as she dragged him along by his wrist. It was oddly reminiscent of the time he'd cut his eyelid in their first year of middle school during a tennis match and she'd fussed over him. Only this time, she was getting her way and taking care of him.

He couldn't help but let her do it. She was touching him again...and he'd just decided he was really okay with her touching him. In fact, he wanted her to touch him more. _A lot more._

"I don't need my mouth to play tennis, Ryuzaki," He deadpanned.

Silly girl. As if a bit tongue would have any impact on his tennis. No...nothing to do with his tennis. Though he didn't know about kissing...and he had been anxious to try that out a few minutes ago. Now he would have to wait.

Maybe he was wrong and this was the universe's way of telling him it wasn't time yet?

Her hand slid down his wrist and grasped his hand. She turned slightly as she continued to walk. Her braids swayed with the cool fall breeze and she flashed him that radiant smile she sends his way when they talk about his tennis skills. As it always had, it took his breath away.

_She was more than pretty._

"Ryoma-kun," It was all she said. She didn't need to say more. He understood. She got him. She really got him.

Okay...universe be damned. It was definitely time.

This bit tongue thing, it was just_ a minor_ setback.

* * *

Well here we are at the end of chapter one of yet another fanfic. I know as if _It's Complicated_ and _Decisions_ aren't enough. Problem is, I'm writing two more stories right now so I need to keep posting stuff or I'll get too backlogged. I hope you all enjoy this story. :D Can't wait to hear your thoughts. :D

xoxo Bunny


	2. Chapter 2

**The Friend Zone**

By Bunny

Rated: T

Summary: Nothing is interesting if you're not interested, and Ryoma has always found Sakuno to be interesting. Recently, she has him thinking about her to the point of distraction, which leads to a series of failed attempts to get her attention back to where it's always belonged. On him.

* * *

_IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON THIS FIC:_

This is the story I wrote for the **2013 Summer RyoSaku Express Fandom Exchange** hosted by **neko11lover**. Below is my request prompt:

_For **OrangeAce**_

Canon Knowledge: Anime only

What you want to receive: Fic

Prompt: Nothing is interesting if you're not interested

What you want to see: Coming-of-age, Ryoma sees Sakuno in a new light, mixture of humor and drama, family, Nanjiroh's appearance, failed attempts

What you don't want to see: OOCness. That is all.

* * *

Chapter Two

* * *

By the time they arrived at school, Ryoma's tongue had already stopped bleeding. Despite Sakuno's continued insistence that they go visit the school nurse, his stubbornness to not go won out. While still grasping on to her delicate little hand, he dragged her to the vending machine and bought the two of them some cold Pontas.

Cracking open his can, he took a large gulp of the cold drink. The chilled liquid wrapped around his abused tongue, giving him instant relief.

_Ponta had never tasted so good._

"We're going to get in trouble for being late," Sakuno commented as she took a sip of her own cold soda.

They were sitting down on the bench next to the vending machine looking out over the empty school grounds. Classes had already started so they were out there all alone. Well, as alone as it got at school...their schoolmates could probably see them if they were looking out of the windows.

_Nosy schoolmates...or unfocused ones...or...or...whatever..._

"Hn," He acknowledged. She was right. They _would _get in trouble. Maybe they would have to stand out in the hallway? Just the two of them...alone in the empty hallway. They could sneak off to an unused room and...

STOP! STOP! Can't think about this stuff...it's how they ended up late for school in the first place. Besides...his tongue was still all swollen from earlier so the timing wasn't right anymore.

"Maybe we should just skip?" She asked.

He turned to the side to look at her in shock. Wait a minute. What? There's no way that sweet little Ryuzaki just suggested something _so bad._

Skipping school. He'd never done it since he arrived in Japan. Sometimes he'd done it back in the US, but it was just so he could go play tennis. He'd never skipped before to hang out with a girl.

Although, Ryuzaki was the exception to all girls. She always had been. She always would be.

She giggled, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I can't believe you just suggested we skip school," He blurted.

She shrugged, "We're almost sixteen, Ryoma-kun...shouldn't we skip school at least once?"

Who was this girl and what had she done with Ryuzaki Sakuno? Hmmm. Well, honestly...he wasn't going to complain about it. It was_ maybe kind-of sort-of_ cool.

He stood up, "Okay."

She stood up as well, "Okay what?"

"Okay, let's skip."

She giggled again, "I can't wait to tell Tomo-chan we skipped school, she's going to freak out."

Ryoma didn't know what to say. He was still surprised she'd even thought of, let alone suggested something rebellious such as skipping classes. Generally speaking she was a goody-goody. Or maybe he didn't know her as well as he thought he did.

Naw, it was probably just some silly idea she'd come up with in the moment and thankfully, he was the person with her when she'd suggested it.

Too bad his tongue was all messed up. Maybe it would heal quickly? Maybe they could get things started today after all?

As they made their way back out of the school gate she turned to him and asked, "So now what are we going to do?"

Ryoma looked down at his school uniform and looked over at hers, "Change clothes."

"Oh? Ryoma-kun has skipped before?"

He sent her a smirk, "Only back in the States."

She grinned as she grabbed for his hand again. She started leading the way out into the city street, "I know _just the place!_ There's this guy there that likes me, so he always gives me a discount."

Wait. _What was this about some other guy liking her? _

Of course, before they could get to this terrible place where some terrible guy had the audacity to like _his _girl, she managed to get herself turned around and lost. This girl...she never really changes. She might be curvier, shorter than him now, and for some reason want to ditch school for a day, but her hips were still wobbly, her hair was still too long, her planning was still bad, and her sense of direction still_ sucked._

After quite a bit of flustered babbling from her and a few more bad turns, they finally ended up at the place. Ryoma thought it was a miracle they'd found it. He wasn't looking forward to meeting this guy that supposedly liked his..._whatever she was_, but he was anxious to change out of his uniform. They'd already received several suspicious looks wandering around town during school hours in their uniforms.

"Welcome!" They were greeted enthusiastically by all the employees as they entered the shop.

Sure enough, there was a guy waving from the back at Sakuno.

A terrible, terrible guy indeed. He was smiling at her with this really stupid look. Ryoma kind-of wanted to smack a tennis ball towards his face. Hard.

"Good morning Yamada-kun!" Sakuno greeted cheerfully.

She sounded happy to see him. Ryoma wanted to puke.

He half expected her to go talk to this Yamada guy, but instead she quickly began shopping, grabbing one article of clothing after another. Ryoma took that as his own cue to go find something. He veered off towards the menswear and quickly selected a few items.

They almost ran into each other in the back by the dressing rooms where Yamada was keeping busy reorganizing items to head back out to the store racks. Ryoma noted with irritation that she was slightly flushed pink as she was shown by Yamada into a dressing room. Ryoma was shown into the one next to hers.

The dressing room was small, just like the store. It was a little cubed area with nothing but a curtain covering the enclosure for a measure of privacy. Ryoma noted with irritation that there wasn't even a mirror in the small area.

He tugged off his school uniform and changed into a pair of black pants and a plain t-shirt. He moved around a bit, shaking his legs and arms, trying to get a feel for if the clothes fit well, but it wasn't really cutting it. He needed a mirror. Hoping there was no one outside of the dressing room, he slid the curtain aside at the same moment the curtain in the stall next to him opened up.

Surprised at the timing, Ryoma looked over at Sakuno who was giving him an equally surprised look. He froze for a fraction of a second...even though in his mind it felt like a millennium. His eyes were quickly absorbing her entire body. The top she was in (if you could even call it that) was barely covering her breasts, they were practically spilling out of the top of it, and the skirt was so short, he could swear he could make out the side of her bum!

_What the hell?_

Before anybody else could have a look at her, he was magically unfrozen. He moved so quickly, it felt like slow motion as he plowed his whole body into hers. Without even thinking about it, he yanked the curtain to her dressing room closed behind him as his body continued to push hers forward until they hit the back wall of the small changing area.

She let out a startled yelp on impact. She blinked up at him, as he stared at her bare chest while it heaved against his. She was trying to catch her breath, and he instantly felt bad that he'd probably knocked the wind out of her when he'd slammed her against the wall with his bigger body.

It was just that...she was...and he couldn't let...

Unconsciously, he moved his face closer to hers, smelling the top of her hair. She smelled sweet like candy, or fruit, or Ponta. He couldn't quite place it, but it made him want to taste...well...it was definitely something sweet. He hadn't even realized how close their faces were until he felt the edge of his bottom lip brush up against skin.

Upon the contact, they both took in a sharp inhale.

Oh...that was the tip of her ear._ So...soft._

"What are you wearing?" He asked gruffly, his lips continuing to brush against the shell of her ear here and there as he spoke. Mmmm...so tempting. She felt so soft all over, he wanted to just...

He felt her body shiver, and his body responded by pushing against hers.

_Oh..._

"I...I..."

How cute, she was stuttering again. She hadn't done that around him for at least a year.

The curtain behind them made a ringing sound from the rings sliding against the rod as it was suddenly yanked open.

Ryoma turned his head and shot a hateful look at Yamada, who was standing there with his mouth open wide enough to catch a tennis ball.

"Get out!" Ryoma barked.

Yamada's finger rose, pointing accusatorily at Ryoma's back as he sputtered, "You-what-just-you-_what do you think you are doing?"_

Ryoma's eyes narrowed warningly, as his body shifted slightly to cover up Sakuno more. She gasped, her face naturally raising up to look at Ryoma. She only caught his profile though, since he was still turned away from her towards the doorway.

"Out!" Ryoma repeated.

"But-"

"Can't you see we're busy?" Ryoma added irritably.

Yamada's eyes widened to the size of saucers as Ryoma continued to glare daggers into his face.

Finally, Yamada stammered out an apology, blushed ten shades of red, and then with a whip of the curtain, they were once again in semi-privacy.

"Ry-Ryoma-kun..." Her hips wiggled for a second and that was when Ryoma realized there was a lot more going on in the little dressing room that even he thought.

_Hell._

Now what was he supposed to say?

Deciding to go with the obvious, he looked down at her and huffed, "Your chest is falling out of your top, Ryuzaki."

He watched as she blinked up at him for a moment, obviously confused at his meaning. She followed his gaze down to where he was looking, took in her cleavage and gasped with realization. He watched as every part of her that was visible turned bright red, which was quite a bit of her. He idly wondered if the parts of her he couldn't see were red too. _He'd be willing to bet a grand slam title that they were._

"Ryoma-kun!" She exclaimed scandalously.

He let his hand slide down the wall past her head as he gave her a casual, "Hn."

Her head turned to the side and stared at his hand lying against the wall for a moment before she added softly, "Thank you..._I think."_

"Your skirt is too short," He added as his other hand slid down the wall on the other side of her body. Unable to help himself, he grazed the tips of his fingers against the soft flesh of her thigh where her skirt ended. She jumped, and consequently pressed herself further into his arms.

_Good._

"Hmmmmmmm..." He could swear he could feel her heart beating a million times a minute against his chest.

She was still blushing as she stammered, "I..I...I see your...a...p-point."

He smirked down at her as they stood there for a few minutes in silence. Her face was beet red and she was still heaving panting breaths, her chest pushing against his with each quick inhale. He looked right at home as he pinned her to the wall with his larger body.

"I guess I'll change into one of these other outfits," She finally suggested after she gathered her breath.

Ryoma didn't move an inch.

She lifted her hands up from her sides and pushed them lightly against his chest as she said, "Ryoma-kun can go now."

His eyebrows rose, "No."

Her eyes widened, "What?"

He nodded his head in the direction of the curtain and said, "Did you see how he opened the curtain on us?"

"Oh."

There was another prolonged pause and then Sakuno said, "B-but I c-can't change with Ryoma-kun h-here."

"Sure you can," He quipped.

She giggled and pushed against his chest again, a little harder this time, "Don't be silly. I can't even move!"

He shuffled back a little, getting as far away from her as he could while still keeping his hands against the wall. Lifting his head up towards the ceiling he said, "Change. I won't look."

"But-!"

"I saw most of it already anyway Ryuzaki," He added.

The blush that had finally subsided returned tenfold as she let out a soft "Mou," but started moving around nonetheless to go ahead and change. After all, it really wouldn't do if Yamada-kun saw her changing. At least Ryoma-kun was looking away and making sure she wouldn't be seen if the curtain opened again.

Sakuno's mind whirled on overdrive as she quickly removed her outfit and put on another one. A lot more had happened in her little changing room in the last few minutes than she was fully ready to wrap her mind around. A lot more was still happening...every time...she bumped into him in this small space he'd given her to change in...

_Was this really happening? _Knowing she wouldn't be caught with Ryoma-kun looking up, she allowed herself a small glance at his pants and then immediately looked away as she was flooded with the strongest reaction she'd ever had in her entire life!

Should _NOT_ have done that! Oh...oh...oh...it..._aahahahahahahhhh..._

Okay...so she'd _always _admired Ryoma-kun. She'd always hoped that someday their relationship would progress into something more _romantic_. She'd always thought in the back of her mind that _maybe _he did like her back since he was decidedly nicer to her than he was to other girls. Well, as nice as Ryoma-kun was capable of anyway. What she'd never thought of was that one day he would press his hard body up against hers and act like it was completely normal.

There was nothing normal about this. It had been the last thing she'd ever expected to happen to her today as she'd left the house to go to school. _Even though they'd had clothes on, she had still felt it, and now...she hadn't been able to help her curious, dirty little mind from taking a peek on top of that._

She'd never been so scared and excited about anything in her life before.

What did it mean?

What was she going to do?

* * *

Hmmm...all I can say is...the prompt was 'coming of age' and I ran with it. Blame OrangeAce! *runs away*

Thank you to everybody that reviewed chapter 1! I was so excited to see such a warm reception for this crazy fanfic!

**Hinate, Sofia334, peonelopie4, bowlfullofcherries, Scented Candles, yana19, MIr, Abstract Obsessions, thegrandprincessofdarkness, cloudgoddess, yuri-chan021, shirochokoreete, tipsyx, JC-zala, SinfulEmerald, 1wingedangelX, neko-chan lover, KL93, Kurosaki Razhel, ILoveSxS, xxxeLie3173xxx, Lady Light, J Luc Pitard, Music4Life1791, LollipopLawliet, Anago, heartluv, NanamiYatsumaki, Jasmini, lechat23, michelle88222, **and** silverstargazer.**

**Hinate - **Yes, yes you spoiled, spoiled boy. You want an update hmmm...maybe you can help me then. :P hehe...hearts...xoxoxoxo

**Sofia334 - **Yay! So happy to hear you enjoyed it. :D I hope you like the rest as well.

**peonelopie4 - **Yep, there's 15 chapters to this fic. I hope you enjoy them all. :D

**bowlfullofcherries - **Heheh well there will be changes and edits here and so happy to hear it's one of your all time faves even though you read my sloppily thrown together version! :D

**Scented Candles - **Yay! So happy to hear you're enjoying it. ;D AAAANDDD BTW HOW ARE YOU! OMG it's been FOREVER and what are you doing in PoT fandom? :D

**yana19 - **heheh I loved your dance. :D I loved hearing you laughed a lot and that you read it twice already! This is music to my ears! Thank you so much! ;D

**MIr - **So happy to hear you love it and that you enjoy all my fics. Thank you so much!

**Abstract Obsessions - **Nawww...there's no such thing as laughing more than you should! I'm so thrilled to hear you laughed! I really want everybody that reads this to LOL a lot. :D

**thegrandprincessofdarkness - **YAY! I'm so happy to hear it! ;D

**cloudgoddess - **Thank you so much for all the high praise. I hope you enjoy the rest of the fic! :D

**yuri-chan021 - **Yay so happy to hear it! Thank you :D

**shirochokoreete - **Yay so much for the fic being a stress buster! Awesome compliment! :D TYSM :D

**tipsyx - **LOL..Sakuno didn't get Ryoma's meaning. He just thought she did before he realized that she didn't. :D LOL. :D

**JC-zala - **I love how well you summarized it all up! Brilliant! I hope you enjoy the rest as well! :D

**SinfulEmerald - **As always you entertained me so much with your review! Aww you spoil me! :D xoxo So happy that you are enjoying the plot vice so much and the set up. Can't wait to share more and more of this crazy story with you! :D

**1wingedangelX - **heheh! Stalker-chan! How are you? It HAS been too long! I hope you enjoy this fic!

**neko-chan lover - **What a sweet and awesome review you left for me! I want to squeal over it a lot a lot! I love it! Thank you so much for enjoying all my stuff so much. It is soooooo thrilling to hear that there are people out there that enjoy reading them so much! xoxo

**KL93 - **I'll have to check out this book "Flipped." Thanks for the rec!

**Kurosaki Razhel - **Aww so happy you enjoy my projects so much. Thank you x million.

**ILoveSxS - **Yay for cute and funny that was definitely my goal. :D

**xxxeLie3173xxx - **LOL...no friend zone is definitely a worldwide term. To my knowledge it's been around for a really long time too. Like really, really long time. LOL :D So happy to hear you enjoyed it so much! So why were you thinking maybe this one wasn't mine? Tell me! Tell me! :D hehehe

**Lady Light - **Yay for hilarity! :D I love it!

**J Luc Pitard -** Yes the rabbit hole on Ryoma's friend zone does go pretty deep in this fic which of course will lead to lots of hijinks. :D Soon, we'll find out why he's been friend zoned which is what makes Sakuno so much more comfortable around him now. :D

**Music4Life1791 - **Hehehe Mayu-chan you crack me up! :D So happy you're so happy. :D

**LollipopLawliet - **Thank you! I love to hear my readers are excited to read more! :D

**Anago - **Oh please do LOL a lot. This fic is supposed to be funny. ;3 All boys have all kinds of fantasies...(girls do too) and especially during sexual peak years and during 'coming of age' years when your body is all hormonal. I dunno what else to say on that matter, except that if anybody says otherwise I just simply don't believe them, or I believe that they've buried it so deep they can't even be honest with themselves, or maybe they're a late bloomer. So given that in this story Ryoma and Sakuno are 15-16 and like each other (a lot) I find these internal fantasies to be perfectly natural. You also have to consider that Nanjiro is a super perv, so Ryoma's likely been exposed to all sorts of ideas about sex and females over the years that will inevitably fuel his sexual imagination once it's working. Of course, as a 12 year old (like in the series canon) he'll protest to that openly and maybe or maybe not have some fantasies, but by the time he's a little older he'll have those fantasies even if he still denies that he does and _especially_ if he has a girl he likes. I can't see Ryoma talking about the fact or owning up to the fact that he has fantasies with any of his friends or anybody, I would find _that_ to be OOC, but I would also find it OOC if he wasn't honest with himself that he had fantasies. I think he would be very honest with himself, because while a private guy, he's matter of fact, which means to me that inside his head he knows what's what - which is great for us readers since we get to get inside his head. Muahahaha. Something to always keep in mind about internal thoughts in a story is that they're true to real life, meaning that just like us, a character will think many many many things that they'll never actually say or do or even admit to another person that they thought them.

**heartluv - **heheh :D

**NanamiYatsumaki - **Thank you so much! :D

**Jasmini -** I don't know how well I'll do all juggling all these stories. It was 3 I was posting up, and now it's 2, which is still a lot. I'm also writing 2 other ones. Merg. Oh well! All for the love of the fandom, right? :D

**lechat23 - **I'm so happy you LOLed a lot! And yes Ryoma caught by his hormones is just a funny thought to begin with. :D I hope you enjoy the rest of the fic!

**michelle88222 - **Yeah he totally hit an epic fail on his attempt to get things started with Sakuno! So happy it made you laugh since this fic is lots of comedy. :)**  
**

**silverstargazer **- I don't think he is, I think I know his char pretty well, but I suppose that's a matter of opinion on how you view a character. The plot vice is "coming of age" so he's not a 12 year old anymore, so he's going to be a little bit different simply from the fact he's grown up a bit.


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